Old Believers (Staroveri)

In 1653, the Patriarch Nikon modified liturgical practices to bring the Russian Orthodox Church in line with those of the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Church, from which it had split two hundred years earlier. The ‘Old Believers’ (staroveri) rejected these changes, and continued to worship using the earlier practices. These actions resulted in their persecution by the Russian Orthodox Church, which forced them into exile across Siberia. For information about the Old Believers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers.

Given their history, we investigated whether populations of Old Believers have genetically diverged from other Slavic populations as a result of their isolation. We also tried to determine whether the three Old Believer populations analyzed in this study were part of a single gene pool (founder population), or instead derived from heterogeneous sources in eastern Russia. As part of this analysis, we surveyed mtDNA diversity of 189 Russian Old Believer individuals from three populations in Siberia and 201 ethnic Russians from different parts of Siberia.

Our results indicate that the Old Believers have not significantly genetically diverged from other Slavic populations over the 200-300 years of their isolation in Siberia, based on their maternal lineages. However, they do show some unique patterns of mtDNA variation relative to other Slavic groups, such as a high frequency of sub-haplogroup U4, a surprisingly low frequency of haplogroup H, and low frequencies of the rare East Eurasian subhaplogroup D5.

Our results indicate that the Old Believers have not significantly genetically diverged from other Slavic populations over the 200-300 years of their isolation in Siberia, based on their maternal lineages. However, they do show some unique patterns of mtDNA variation relative to other Slavic groups, such as a high frequency of sub-haplogroup U4, a surprisingly low frequency of haplogroup H, and low frequencies of the rare East Eurasian subhaplogroup D5.